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Chris Church

Jan McHarry

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Sustainable Tower Blocks Initiative

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Hackney

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The Sustainable Tower Blocks Initiative

The Sustainable Tower Blocks Initiative is a project that seeks to:

a) encourage discussion and action around the future of high-rise housing and especially its role in creating sustainable urban communities and environments

b) work with residents in tower blocks to help make tower blocks better places to live

c) encourage the refurbishment (and not the demolition) of existing tower blocks

The STBI was set up in 1999 by myself (Chris Church) and a colleague, Toby Gale. You can find out more about it at its own website. This site is rather out of date - we currently lack the resources for its updating. A summary presentation about this work done for MSc students at University College London can be downloaded here.

Anyone looking to work on refurbishing tower blocks should go first to the Sustaining Towers website. This is a major web-based resource for designers and regeneration professionals: we worked on this project with an innovative group of architects and engineers on a government funded 'Sustainable Towers' programme. The main input from the STBI was a review of social factors that need to be taken into account when building new high-rise or refurbishing old ones.

Another recent STBI report, called “High Life”, has examples of how residents can make real changes to their blocks and was based on working with six tower block communities. This came out in late 2005 and is available from CDF Publications,

Anyone who is interested in local action and why tower blocks matter to those who live in them may like to download HOW TO LIVE IN A TOWER BLOCK - An insiders guide to tower block living - an amusing overview from artist Maureen Ward, who’s lived most of her life on high-rise (attach 2)

The STBI has done other pieces of work and consultancy and is always happy to discuss new ideas. One example is work done for Oxford City Council running workshops with the residents of their various tower blocks; we also helped evaluate work done by Groundwork UK in and around tower blocks in England. Contact me for more information.